I did not always believe in Shepherd’s Hill Academy in Martin, Georgia. Honestly, I looked on it with skepticism. I knew to a degree the reputation of wilderness programs, and at first dismissed the idea of employment. Yet, the website packaged the program as a mental health facility. It looked from the images online like a retreat, and according to the website several layers of accountability existed.
I accepted the position.
I admit, a few things disconcerted me from my very first tour after accepting the post. Notably, the institutional prison-like environment. The metal rusted desks, ripped carpet, and exposed wood expressed either a chuegy experiment in minimalism, or the physical manifestation of the ‘only troubled-teens live here’ attitude which permeates the staff. Indeed, the facility more closely resembled an adult rehab from the early 1990’s than an academy priced at 10, 800 dollars per month per student.
I served as a history and Spanish teacher. Meaning I spent the over-whelming majority of my time on the main campus in the classrooms. I understood very little of how students spent their evenings and weekends. Due to the remote nature of the soft sided structures, which served as sleeping quarters for students, I failed to see the SHA campsites until half way into my second year. I’m not kidding, until last summer or so I thought their “cabins” had air condition units. Below are a few photos of the SHA sites. Linked HERE are a few more.
Indeed, the 2022–2023 school year expanded my class sizes and due to the requirements of a graduate class, I finally investigated the program I had served since 2021.
I learned more about what my student’s lives looked like, and I engaged more comfortably with co-workers. As a neuro-divergent female, I struggle to connect with others and sometimes this applies to my students as well. However, as students saw the ways in which I invested in their education and classrooms, they recognized not just an experienced educator, but a caring one.
During my time at SHA, I transformed the bare bones holding cells into real classrooms. I implemented decorated bulletin boards, covered the paint chipped walls with posters, student art, and their projects. I purchased lamps for a relaxed low-lighting, and rugs to dampen noise. I invested in yoga mats, books, rugs, pillows, bins and shelves for tidy storage. During the holidays, I organized and paid for decorations and parties, including a gingerbread house competition, field-day, purchased Christmas trees, and established an egg hunt for Easter. I poured enormous sums of time, energy, and money into my classrooms and invested in my students happiness and education. In short, I bought in.
Myself and one other teacher also worked hard to transition the education program from a homeschool co-op to a real academy. After all, most parents spend close to 120,000K per year in tuition. I practiced cooperative learning, group work, used individual white boards for Think, Pair, Shares, and other evidence based practices. Throughout the semester I collected student work and stored them in folders, annotated their assignments, decorated it with stickers and stamps, and presented these to parents at conferences to ensure this home-to-school connection. I organized one act plays with sets and costumes and musical productions that allowed students to display abilities in dancing, singing, and musical instruments. As part of my elective summer English course, I even organized and published a class book. For the first time, parents identified the academic program as the point of the triad (therapy, residential, and education) that just worked.
However, nothing gold can stay. As time progressed, I recognized the insular and to a degree cult-like nature of the program. The founder of SHA (a public figure and podcast host), described in detail in another Medium article, by my time of employment had receded to the outskirts of the program, lingering like a little black spider in his web.
Beneath him serve his adult children and their spouses, who manage the majority of operations within the facility, and even live in a family compound on the farm along with employees that occasionally rent houses from them.
(Linked HERE is a comparison between the Victorian mentality of reform schools, specifically the approach of Mr. Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre, to the current philosophies implemented by the owner of SHA. Not only in how leadership treat and view “troubled teens” but also in the reality that they would almost certainly never expose their own children to a cold winter night in a room with holes in the walls.)
Due to the insular nature of SHA, no meaningful layers of accountability exist amongst or above those responsible for the day to day management of the facility. Indeed, when one closely examines their touted “board of governors” and the accreditation agency responsible for upholding honest and ethical conduct, one recognizes the presence of a paper tiger.
As stated prior, part of my task as a graduate student required an examination of stakeholders and those entities that exist to provide standards of conduct and regulation. Unfortunately, Shepherd’s Hill Academy failed to withstand scrutiny. When introduced to members of the board of governors, my jaw quite literally dropped to learn that it comprised of the founder’s former pastor and a former parent and their spouses. However, reassurance in the form of CARF accreditation temporarily assuaged my disappointment in the board. Yet, when one makes even a cursory investigation into private accreditation facilities one recognizes the dubious nature of these constructs.
The “Commission on Accreditation for Rehab Facilities” stamp of approval indicates little concerning the quality of the rehab provider. CARF serves as a mere “bump in the road” that unscrupulous providers pay for to look good on paper to parents seeking a magic bean in the promises of “therapeutic boarding schools.” Parents want to believe that the troubled teen industry provides the promised product of a reformed child, and when packaged with a colorful bow like CARF and a 120K price tag, it’s easy for parents to believe that they bought the keys to a magic castle in the air instead of the dirty handful of beans they bought from a profitable private business.
I taught at Shepherd’s Hill Academy as they worked toward gaining CARF accreditation. During this evaluation, the man responsible for withholding or providing approval arrived just as two students absconded from the program, after stealing and eventually totaling a staff car. Not only that, but this inspector allowed team members to make adjustments as he inspected the property. Members of leadership gathered at a conference table, in a chamber labeled the “War Room,” to organize minute to midnight deadline requirements, even as some within the administration worked with police to monitor the situation with the runaways, between stints of berating and blaming the overworked direct care staff — naturally.
Indeed, when this inspector toured the classrooms and interviewed students, he interrupted my class and spoke with them as a body. When one brave female articulately expressed her dissatisfaction with SHA, volunteering information on the acute lack of professionalism shown by many in the direct-care staff, his response unnerved any observant person in the room. He gas-lit the student whom he specifically questioned, and told her that as a teenager she failed to properly understand the motives of those responsible for her care. He posed her a question, she answered honestly, and he pontificated. What kind of inspection is this? Perhaps the same type of CARF inspection that approved a Church of Scientology rehab facility where numerous patients died:
According to Tony Ortega of the Village Voice, “A year later, however, Narconon Chilocco got around the state’s objections. At the time, Oklahoma law allowed for the center to get an exemption from state certification when it went instead to a private group, the Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), for approval.
As Lobsinger pointed out in July, 1992, the first two CARF inspectors, who granted Narconon its certification, ended up with jobs there.”
CARF accreditation is meant to be utilized as a marketing strategy to promote enrollment. Yet, anyone looking closely likely recognizes it as a paper shield meant to convince parents that layers of accountability exist to protect their child while living in one of their approved facilities.
CARF, when trying to persuade providers to purchase their product, acknowledges this utility on their own website, “Accreditation assures the public that you have made a commitment to continually enhance the quality of your services and programs and that your organization’s focus is on the satisfaction of the persons served.” However, a problem consistent with these private accreditation organizations is that they provide lengthy notices of inspection to providers and rarely ever remove those deficient from their rosters once accepted. Indeed, agencies as prestigious in name as the Joint Commission in recent years finally received the notoriety it deserves.
(Linked HERE is an informal, though easy to understand article with links to other more reputable sources that explain these third party credential providers. Linked HERE is a podcast explaining the problem with private accreditation services and so-called education consultants.)
Indeed, a teen recently passed away in a Joint Commission facility due to medical neglect. However, both the state and the third-party accreditation facility approved the re-opening of the school within months of the girl’s preventable death. The only real measure of accountability comes from parents. I have watched leadership sweat under the scrupulous gaze of a concerned parent. If parents object to unsafe living conditions, an arbitrary diet regimen, or pernicious consequences, then the owners of the company find solutions to what was once deemed an immovable obstacle. Leadership frequently identified the 2022–2023 parents as “the worst in SHA history.” Why? Because these parents ask questions and hold the institution to the promises they agreed to on signing day.
Remember, according to GA CPS, a hotel with a transport officer for a six year old is a safe accommodation. They look at the situation from the perspective of “three hot meals and a bed.” Hence, do not expect state agencies to protect your child from the consequences of a year living in a damp, hole ridden infrastructure, unnecessary medical neglect, nor untrained direct-care staff paid the same wage as a fast-food employee. Nor is CARF likely to eject a company to protect your child, when they receive payment from SHA.
After my resignation from Shepherd’s Hill Academy, and after months of collecting photographs and informal testimonies from students and staff, I wrote a 16 page report with around fifty gathered photos going back two years to show consistency, and at least nine references to provide to CPS. It took three weeks and finally multiple calls to the local sheriff’s office for CPS to respond, hence removing the element of surprise from the inspection when they finally deigned to visit SHA. Why did it take so long? Because the local CPS office does not answer their phone, and their voice mailbox is constantly full, as reported by numerous Google reviews. This in addition to confusion and debate over which county oversaw the farm — the answer is two different counties. Yet, as an individual that served as a victim’s advocate at a domestic violence shelter, I know from personal experience the heartbreaking inadequacy that can occur within child protective services and the lengths of abuse a child must often endure for intervention.
This all suggests that parents must accept their duty as their child’s guardian and represent their child’s interests. After all, who will love and care for them like family? Yet, this representation may be easier said than done. After-all, the SHA experience often begins with an abduction by a transport service, or a guardian’s lie that the child is just going on a family vacation. Thus, creating what many young people describe as a life long fission in the child guardian relationship.
Then, upon arrival to the facility the child is strip searched and silenced into submission. Meaning, they may not speak until granted the privilege, which can last weeks. Then, all personnel, from therapists to direct care staff, tell students (in what adds up to) essentially daily statements on how much they need the program to reform and sometimes even to survive (as many parents are assured also). If the teenager presents any other opinion or complains about the program, orderlies usually place them on silence, order a consequence, and report the statement. By the time students are allowed to communicate with their parents, they have endured weeks of isolation, dehumanization, and (depending on the student) frequent meal replacements.
Parents need to understand however that they will not be able to hide behind “I didn’t know” when their child almost inevitably holds them to scrutiny for the choice of out-sourcing the difficult teen years. Not when part of the program is parental alienation until the child achieves a certain level of compliance to the SHA culture. Furthermore, when staff allows students to write and even call their guardians, these conversations are monitored. If a student reports “negativity” or “lies” when speaking with their parents this can mean consequences, either instant or in the form of intangible and quiet retaliation through the refusal to provide privileges. I can remember one student reporting to me in real distress that a person in leadership ripped up a home-letter in front of her and threw it in the trash. This story broke my heart and revealed the Stanford Experiment-like environment sometimes in effect at SHA. The arbitrary nature of so many decisions, boils down to the natural product of immensely mediocre individuals, not held to professional standards, surrounded by sycophants.
During my investigation for my graduate school assignment, I noted that many in the highest ranks at SHA held degrees from third-rate Bible colleges not equal to the decisions they implemented against and on behalf of vulnerable teenagers. Worse still, many at the organization serving in the top brass served in a time when, according to decades worth of student and staff testimony, SHA placed children in orange jumpsuits and shackles and ordered weeks and sometimes even months of meal replacements. A point of history I always emphasize to students is not that the most evil individuals of the human story are mustache twirling villains, but actually ordinary people, surrounded by lickspittles, elevated to positions of authority beyond their merits. I genuinely believe that most (though not all) long-term employees of SHA fit within this category of underqualified and therefore are more easily capable of cruelty.
Hence, events like the ones that I am about to describe come into fruition:
Example A: A young boy leaves his binder on his desk after being asked to put it away. A male staff chucks it out of the door and breaks it as a consequence. This same student also reported that a staff lifted him up by his desk when “consequencing” him.
Example B: One might expect that meal replacements are only for serious infractions, but have been distributed by staff for reasons as frivolous as not making the bed properly and forgetting one’s water bottle. It especially concerned me, when Autistic students were given meal replacements for non-violent, even frivolous reasons. These students especially struggle with the texture and will skip meals and vomit as a means to avoid the punishment. This brings them to the decision to either starve or endure what to them must be an intolerable experience in order to survive. This has the potential to either develop or aggravate an existing eating disorder.
I can remember with acuity a student retching and crying into the meal replacement she was forced to carry with her to the classroom (chickpeas and greens). I also recall the response of the administration to my objection, and how this complaint stated to my direct supervisors, meant my first introduction to one of the most senior members of staff and the “circle the wagons” and “protect the institution” approach of management that occurs at SHA.
My entirely reasonable critique led to an abrupt meeting, meaning my temporary removal from class, to face a round table discussion with top brass to refute idle gossip and to affirm my commitment to SHA and leadership’s decisions. The lesson I was meant to learn was understood, leave it to us. As an educated professional, who also broke free of “Duggar like” religious fundamentalism as a young adult, I nearly resigned, unnerved and familiar with this culture. However, shortly thereafter I received approval to found a reading support small group, introducing a sense of restrained optimism that at least my department had vision. I decided that as long as I could move this specific department forward, and encourage them to embrace evidence based education practices that I could stomach the rest.
Example C: This example will not apply to all residential staff. Indeed, many are highly empathetic parents and care-givers, well liked by students. Yet, for some, bullying replaces mentorship. In part, this is due to a lack of understanding of the developmental process for neuro-divergent teens experiencing puberty. Shift notes shamelessly mocked what most would recognize as typical behavior of an Autistic male. This does not just exist on the residential side of the program, but within leadership. For the purpose of my graduate studies, I shadowed a clinicals meeting. This meant a meeting of all department heads to discuss individual students. I remembered on more than one occasion feeling miffed at how little so many within this circle understood the minds and actions of their neuro-divergent charges. Specifically concerning their understanding of how teens on the spectrum, and those with mild intellectual disabilities, navigate puberty. Behaviors that I understand as typically atypical, inspired jokes from members in leadership at the expense of the child. As someone with two years of experience working directly with Autistic students, I regularly encountered the behaviors that any individual with an education or therapeutic degree ought to understand as developmentally problematic, but not altogether unexpected. A more accurate description than “deviant” or “malicious.” In this meeting, I specifically asked if they regularly “joked” about students in their charge, using a tone of encouragement in an effort to inspire honesty in their answers. An especially senior officer confirmed that ableist banter frequently past for witticisms in these weekly meetings, as well as criticisms of parents and guardians that annoyed them with reproachful questions concerning their child’s treatment. I carefully earmarked their oozing contempt for the purpose of my graduate class, as I had promised to do at the beginning of the session.
Furthermore, myself and a more senior professional, questioned the dubious nature of a correspondence that labeled a vivacious female student as a coquette and consequently encouraged staff to dispirit this conduct. The conduct in question, the child turning her head and smiling when speaking to male staff sometimes. This struck us both, as not only enormously sexist, but benighted. It shook my confidence in yet another layer of SHA leadership, and invoked real skepticism in the validity of the program and some that served within.
This same personnel, in notations, appeared also to suggest that on some level a male victim of sexual abuse needed to accept a certain level of culpability for the event. This accidental discovery not only displays a lack of privacy protections on a product which serviced all departments, an established fact at the time of my employment, but an appalling, and largely unsupported, approach to trauma recovery.
Example D: On the girls side of the program, two female staff isolated a “clique” of girls and held lengthy discussions about their sex lives, covering it up with a cloak of “Song of Solomon.” To earn these teenager’s trust and favor, the staff allowed them to use their cell-phones and threatened them with consequences if they told anyone about this deception. This continued until a student told her mother. This caused significant emotional distress to those involved in the after-math. The administration initiated no criminal investigation, but simply fired the residential staff involved.
Example E: A student assigned himself sentences, calling himself “a fat lard turd” and wrote it on the white board as a reminder to copy this out later. I erased it and explained why such negative self talk is unhealthy.
Now, why are the staff (in many instances) so inexperienced? The answer boils down to a simple human answer — a love of money. Shepherd’s Hill Academy pays an insultingly low wage to their residential staff and severely over-work them. Indeed, the wage provided at SHA for direct care employees matches that of local fast-food and fast casual dining options, and consequently attracts the same labor. Naturally, the over-work and miserable pay combine to create a workforce with a high turn-over rate and little emotional regulation.
More to the point, this department while the most important to daily student care and safety, suffers from the most dissention and quarreling. Holding this position means navigating aggressive and arbitrary politics, similar to environments common in run down hotels, unsavory diners, and Toccoa fast food joints. A pregnant and unpopular direct care staff was admitted to the ER, and reports that she was threatened with termination if she could find no one to fill her shift (click link for more information).
When over-hearing the constant back-biting and gossip standard to the residential staff’s daily “debriefs,” I blessed my lucky stars that I worked in the education department, where fellow teachers encourage and support each other. Moreover, the means of evaluation, promotion, and raises were entirely arbitrary and more closely resembled a middle school class president election than the refined and impartial systems of a business. When asked to evaluate TA’s, I introduced the idea of a rubric to ensure fairness and accuracy. Something that a serious organization would have implemented and practiced since its founding.
Furthermore, many individuals that work at SHA decide to work at the facility due to their own traumatic childhoods, or perhaps due to personal experiences in group homes and foster care. Yet, a lack of specific education and training means that these individuals, well meaning in their intentions, re-create the cycles of mistreatment in their management of these teens they want to help. When staff make harmful mistakes, those in leadership will humiliate and eventually fire them when a parent complains of their conduct, especially if they are politically unpopular within the organization.
Yet, ultimately an intellectually honest person, recognizes that the problem rests upon the shoulders of those refusing to raise the wage to attract and retain preferred talent, rather than those living a hand-to-mouth existence. When employees flip a bed as a consequence, or hand out frivolous meal replacements, or damages student property, the problem is not altogether with the low wage workers, but the institution that fails to invest in high-quality direct care staff. Firing the employee is not taking accountability, but changing the wages and expectations is the fulfilment of the promise to parents to provide a safe and healthy environment. If I were to place my daughter in daycare, I assure the reader that I would without a doubt affirm that the employee enjoyed a living wage, and that the facility not only observed the legal ratios, but practical ratios for the population of children they serve.
Furthermore, written policies are inadequate, meaning that high school graduates must behave with the intuition of a police officer, the discernment of an EMT, and the empathy of a preacher. Hence, the arbitrary nature of the consequences handed down to students, this despite the fact that DHS guidelines appear to require a certain level of anticipation concerning student conduct, an entirely reasonable expectation, especially for a facility that has regulated “troubled teens” for nearly a quarter century. It is important to note, that many employed at SHA are not yet 25 years old, with the benefit of a completed cerebral cortex, and consequently are incapable of making the spur of the moment decisions, which they are often required to make due to the lack of cogent written policy. Many in direct care are enrolled at the local Christian colleges, or recently graduated from high-school with little relevant work history. Once again, one must question the emphasis on a multi-million dollar cafeteria, rather than a potent policy guide and thoroughly trained staff.
This is especially eye brow raising when one considers SHA’ s tax returns available HERE. Notice the salaries paid to ranking staff, the enormous amount spent on marketing, and the tidy profits earned year after year. When one contemplates the infrastructure of the property and student housing, the lack of a real medical infirmary, and the poverty wages, one easily imagines how these margins are managed.
This leads me to my next point, student and staff safety:
Example A: SHA can be an unsettling place for staff and students. As mentioned before, the facility is perennially understaffed, especially in direct care. Consequently, supervision can naturally be lax. Recently, two boys stole a staff car and ran away. This occurred as a result of over-worked, underpaid staff, stretched too thin to properly police binders and notebooks. Due to this, students held private conversations for an extended period of time through note distribution. The management came down on every department with arbitrary over-institutionalism and punishments, but refused to meet the one need that would actually protect staff and students — hiring a third direct care staff and increasing the wage to keep preferred and trained talent.
Example B: Residential staff have experienced an especially brutal stabbing, assaults, and even a shanking. One can imagine the impact on both the viewer and the one experiencing the violence.
Example C: When management catches a staff overlooking a policy, they extoll the dangers of self-harm that SHA students are sometimes inclined toward. In one instance, new to the academy, I did not realize the nature of our program, and left the children unattended for a moment to stop a cat from mutilating a chipmunk. Two men from an entirely different department felt empowered to threaten to fire me due to this lapse, though no one had told me that the students always needed direct supervision and my TA had left the room. They extolled a particularly hideous story of a boy slitting his own throat. I countered with the observation that if they comprehend the seriousness and suddenness of potential student actions, then why was their TA not trained to remain in the room, and myself not instructed on the basics of managing a classroom alone as well as educated on student profiles? I agree that teens deserve high-quality care and supervision, yet noticed early into my experience that the training (especially that of teachers) never met the promise of the expertly crafted marketing materials.
Indeed, toward the end of my time at SHA, I noticed a steady decrease in de-escalation tactics and an increase in non-aggressive, non-compliant ESI’s (restraints). On both sides of the program, especially in the absence of more qualified staff, restraints existed as a daily reality in the lives of students for a period of weeks. This impacted the mental health and happiness of all within the program, and allowed for me to understand more fully the impact of this program on the students I served.
Example D: HIPAA violations, during my time at SHA, parents could easily have their child’s private information stolen. How? Due to their half realized IT procedures. They expect one full-time employee to roll out a medical grade security system. Someone could have stolen my laptop (which had no password), clicked on Blue Step, which holds therapy notes and shift notes (available for staff to peruse), and access extremely personal information. Screenshots might easily have been taken and used to blackmail students and parents. I warned leadership of these extensive over-sights and even offered free solutions, but they refused my assistance. This further proves my continued statement that SHA is only as good as exterior forces require it. My understanding, concerning the outcome of my report to HIPAA as a last ditch means to secure student privacy, is that SHA will be assisted by the civil rights resource for the purpose improvement. A consequential victory to those that understand the value of cyber security protections.
Example E: Racism, I don’t throw this accusation around lightly, but bathroom policies for women of color who need more time for their hair need to be implemented. Also, open antisemitism by some STAFF abound. A drawing of a Jewish staff with Jewish caricatures was left on the whiteboard with a slur over it. I introduced holocaust books and graphic novels like Maus to try to counterbalance this, but it is difficult to do this when staff throw around slurs for Jewish people and call students this. Ask your sons if this is true if they are presently in the program.
Example F: SHA students come from a variety of backgrounds. Many of those are trauma backgrounds. The founder of the program forces the children to watch a movie called Hell’s Bells. Boys and girls consistently describe this as traumatic. Hell’s Bells is a Satanic Panic “documentary” that shows suicide, sexual imagery, and supposed demonic possession. I strongly urge parents to watch this documentary to understand the religious principles of the founder of this facility.
In addition to Hell’s Bells, the treatment of students experiencing urinary incontinence is perverse and cruel. If a student wets the bed they can reasonably expect diapers, a mile long walk with their unclean bedding, and the requirement to clean this material at a public water pump. This is sometimes coupled with punishment, but always with public humiliation. While I have heard a staff describe this incontinence as “malicious” or the consequence of a lack of emotional or physical development, this explanation fails to consider how often “bed-wetting” occurs at SHA (on both sides of the program, over the course of two years, within the context of teenagers). It also fails to take into account that if a child needs to use the restroom in the middle of the night that they are required to wake up a small group and staff within their soft-sided structure to follow them to the outhouse, located on a darkly shrouded path uphill, in a facility that several students state has spiders. Likely this, more than malicious conduct and physical dysregulation, suggests the reason for bathroom accidents — a problem which according to written testimony goes back decades.
Example G: While Georgia usually enjoys a warm climate, this state does receive very cold days. Last winter, the children endured 11 degree weather, huddled in a clapboard chapel with holes in it. During this cold snap, the electricity went out and students went without adequate heat.
Example H: The heat source for students is a wood stove. It relies on staff to keep it going through the night. Despite below 40 degree temperatures, there were times that the fire was neglected. It is up to a sleeping, over-worked staff to maintain this fire and monitor it for safety. Several direct care staff acknowledge a lack of fire safety training.
Example I: Students and staff discuss Brown Recluse spiders and snakes in the outhouse.
Example J: A fire burned down the girl’s cabin soon after their departure. Now, consider the GA R&R requirement of either an 18" concrete slab, insulated metal, or other fire proof materials under the stove to the photo of the actual wood burning stove. Below is a testimony from a residential staff, Amanda Venega, that witnessed the fire first hand:
“I was second on scene when the fire at the girls site happened. They did not leave the scene alone for any kind of state investigation. Instead they moved debris around so that they would get an “undetermined” reason for the start of the fire. No fire department or authorities were called. The fire was allowed to “burn out” because they didn’t “want to waste their time” having emergency services put out the fire. The flue to the stove was not properly adhered with metal strapping and there was no lock on the stove door to keep logs from falling out.”
Example K: In too many instances, sick students were made to participate in classes and farm chores even when they had temperatures and were vomiting. Indeed, students are made to carry a trash can with them. They were not separated from other children, causing many of the students to catch the disease.
Only in serious illness outbreaks were students segregated, and this was only after the contagion had reached its peak, and spread rapidly to other students. The only comfort items like mats and pillows came from myself (a teacher) as none were available in instances of medical emergencies. Indeed, no real protocol exists for these small scale epidemics. It reminds me of Jane Eyre’s experience at Lowood School. There is no infirmary for sick students to recover. Linked HERE is more information.
Example L: Yet perhaps, the worst instance of medical neglect involved a student who broke a small bone. Several residential staff recognized the swelling and purple bruising as a break. One informed the on-staff LPN and other leadership staff about this. The residential staff was told to wrap up the injury, and provide a splint. This student is reported to have worn this home-made splint for at least 2 days with no medical visit until the pain increased in severity. Staff then took the child to the doctor to receive a thorough medical evaluation, which confirmed what those in residential had speculated. The individual received a medical grade reinforcement. More information on this incident linked, HERE.
Example M: I remember a student with COVID-19 just laying at their desk in the back of my classroom. I let them grab a yoga mat and pillows and cover themselves up with a jacket. This poor kid was not placed in an infirmary where they belonged, but made to follow the other kids to classes and participate in farm chores. Nor were they segregated from the community to protect others. Eventually an outbreak occurred.
Example N: A parent reported that their daughter was placed in a building (a small trailer) called Next Step. They said the floor under the kitchen sink had a hole in it that roaches crawled through. Numerous direct-care staff affirmed that the girls needed to frequently clean rodent droppings. They also corroborated that the floor had a massive hole in it under the sink and articulated that the rat droppings were at their worst in the bathroom. This building serves as a sort of temporary structure for staff, students, and volunteers.
I warned parents about the state of hygiene on campus, and literally the very next morning, according to reports, two individuals within this structure collapsed after vomiting and shaking. Rather than calling an ambulance, a member of staff drove them to the ER. The staff, according to her own testimony was placed on leave after this, and since termination has sent me documentation to verify the hospital trip.
Example O: Multiple reports confirm that sick students, suffering from a stomach contagion, used the chapel as the primary venue of recovery. This leaning structure, formed of warped boards with holes in it, has one bathroom located downstairs.
Meaning, that when bathroom trips occurred for these students that groups needed to leave together for either the singular stall below or the shower house several feet away in another building, as no student may remain unsupervised unless they are an RA. This meant that students were frequently disposing of medical waste into buckets, and according to multiple reports, waste naturally accumulated on the floor until cleaned by staff and students. I seriously question if the carpet was professionally cleaned in the aftermath, and do not personally recall witnessing this.
Example P: Conversion and aversion practices at SHA target LGBT youth. The founder of the institution preaches at length on gender identity utilizing meme-y click bait arguments and statements. In a monthly SHA ministry update, Trace Embry (podcast host of License to Parent) writes,
“I did a three part series with our kids on the philosophy, politics, science and theology concerning the subject of homosexuality a discussion that spanned three weeks. It spawned many questions and much interest from the kids. Better yet, it opened their hearts and minds to many things. Afterwards, two kids asked to speak with me privately, in the company of another counselor. Later, a third approached me. The result was that all three kids, two girls and one boy, renounced any future plans to pursue that lifestyle!”
Aversion therapy is practiced through “Friendship Ban,” which during my employment at SHA, was almost entirely weaponized against LGBT students displaying what direct care staff might interpret as romantic attraction. This means that these students may not speak or even look at each other. Infraction of this ban often means a meal replacement. Hence, tying attraction to hunger and isolation as MR’s are eaten at a separate table.
Example Q: The use of child labor under the guise of sustainable development goes back to the very beginning of SHA’s founding according to affidavits and written statements. The ones paying the highest price for this poorly realized agricultural program, with no meaningful state over-site, the poor animals. My God the shear amount of animal neglect continues to trigger panic attacks when I consider it. Due to the appalling amount of transgressions associated with the animals, I will list them in bullet points.
- A family dog, whom I reported for aggression after he growled at me in my Halloween costume, eventually mutilated and dismembered the chickens, assaulted a goose, and most critically to his removal — disemboweled a well-loved cat (the carcass found by students).
- A prior flock of chickens died from sun exposure and a lack of water, as a consequence insubstantial 4-H procedures meant to protect the vulnerable animals in the company’s care. I will never forget how a male staff disrupted my class to blame these students for this traumatic event. I can only imagine the impact this had on a group of teenage girls with especially tender hearts toward animals.
- The sheep were absolutely filthy. Their legs and matted wool coated in mud and feces.
- The female barn cats are over-bred, and as of my departure still not spayed.
- The male barn cat constantly squirts worms from his bottom that students occasionally assist him with by pulling them from his body. I myself have picked maggots from a wound. Quite the 4-H activity.
- Though looking for a cat-gloo, or some meaningful structure to protect the cats during winter, I never found a structure specifically designed and insulated for their comfort. I noted that they frequently roosted on cars, attempting to find heat in the engines of the vehicles.
- Litter ended up in the cat food for days, a time span elongated as teams squabbled over who would pay to replace it.
- Bunnies that disappeared due to the fact that they occasionally bit, setting a very poor example of stewardship.
- Linked HERE is a Tik-Tok with photos and more in depth explanations.
Beyond the lack of animal husbandry education, one discerns that a multitude of work projects focus on building maintenance, cleaning, and expanding the farm. I remember listening to a speech about a new hammock garden at SHA, a lovely structure which adds to the value of the property and presents a marketing opportunity for the institution, and how an instructor extolled that “if [this person] were paying the laborers that they would have received a bonus.” The bulk of work associated with the completion of this handsome structure came down to this kind, competent individual and two teenage boys in an “unpaid internship.” Indeed, when one even gives a cursory glance at many work projects, they discern a scheme as effective and brash as Tom Sawyer and his white painted fence. At my time of employment, you could not stroll neatly trimmed and expansive vegetable gardens, you could not gather honey from a maintained bee-keeping infrastructure, and I never saw a handsewn quilt. What I experienced were kids picking weeds and desecrated chickens.
Example R: Finally, I want to talk about my most recent and pressing concern, a man in leadership, whose behavior has been described and identified by representatives of Darkness to Light and RAINN as “escalating” and “disturbing.” One can review the details of this individual’s actions and the response of SHA, HERE.
I want to be clear, my position at SHA was a sinecure. I earned a high wage to teach few students. I received incredibly generous pregnancy accommodations and a plush maternity leave. My reviews were excellent and all within my yearly evaluation acknowledged my vision for the school as the cornerstone by which the department was elevated. It is not an exaggeration when I state that on numerous occasions staff and supervisors from all departments noted that in two years I had accomplished more than any educator since the opening of the school in terms of aesthetics, the emphasis on evidence based instruction, and the insistence on the need to implement and create written procedure.
Naturally, since my departure, a campaign of harassment and character assignation on the part of many in leadership commences with the support of those that offer blind allegiance. This includes public social media tirades using ad-hominem and pseudo-religious condemnation, prank-calls by adults, vitriolic and untrue attacks hidden behind screen names, and disgraceful and disgusting threats — all aimed toward an individual recently diagnosed and hospitalized with heart failure, in their second trimester of pregnancy, and managing the after effects of a still-birth, which took place as recently as August 2022. Fine Christians indeed.
Health conditions which were aggravated to the point of hospitalization due to a week of severe Tachycardia after my resignation. Indeed, when I expressed at my resignation that part of my decision was due to the mental and physical impact (on myself and pregnancy) as a consequence of an especially hostile and even chauvinistic meeting, I was interrupted and gas-lit, and told that I actually resigned because I was told “no.” This was during a time where walking up a short flight of stairs triggered shortness of breath so severe that I doubled over in pain. It was this accusation that allowed me to recognize with final clarity that yes, even my education department carried a “defend the organization” mentality which would always sacrifice the greater call of the mission to the convenience of the institution.
Now, I am prepared to counter genuine arguments and questions given in good faith, but when confronted with bullying, dishonesty, and reneging of commitments promised in fairer days, I will hold the person accountable to their words and actions. In addition to this, if you publicly or personally attack me, the matter will not rest in secret and will be answered and your conduct remembered when I consider from whence future attacks are originating. Hence, polite discourse will be met in equal measure and I encourage this route of communication. I don’t pretend to be a religious 501c3. I will respond as the occasion requires, to an appropriate measure, however bear in mind that I have on my side the moral high-ground of never shackling kids, excusing sexual harassment, and piling dead chickens into trash bags.
While employed and offering the prescribed parental reassurances, and stroking the egos of those in politically influential positions at the organization, I received the effusive praise of those I set out to satisfy. After all, in my first interview, I insisted on the importance of high standards.
Indeed, at the conclusion of Parent’s Weekend, I was told by numerous ranking staff that I received more praise than any single individual throughout the entire conference. Why? Because during our 15 minute meetings, guardians engaged with one of the few professional, articulate, and respectful personnel at the facility. They appreciated that I didn’t exaggerate their kids problems in an effort to extend their stay, I acknowledged their concerns with disciplinary unfairness and some of the more radical fundementalist beliefs of some staff, and provided compassionate and knowledgeable information and insight into their neuro-divergent child. Unlike those that complained in earnest about those that foot the 120K bill, I listened to and resolved many academic concerns, provided pre-considered and tailored post-SHA graduate suggestions, and explained how to seek out free IEP testing. I anticipated and solved problems on the spot, and provided an entire semester’s worth of graded work in the spirit of transparency.
It was only with my decision to speak publicly and knowledgeably about the reality of their child’s day to day life at SHA, gleaned through years of employment, that the insular nature of the organization and the cult-like obedience of its adherents raised its ugly head in the form of sexist accusations concerning my mental health, the ye-olde “hysterical woman” card, as well as some choice ableist remarks concerning my long-established Autism, and other tactics weaponized against articulate and passionate women moving against a community entrenched in religious fundamentalism. But, with a nice pinch of “you are demonic” and “possessed” for flavor.
I expect more character assignation and vindictive behavior as time progresses, as is the pattern concerning the owners and those in adherence to the organization, when one lends their voice to the decades of student and staff testimonies that lay bare the reality of SHA beyond the marketing. In truly gothic fashion, worthy of a Faulkner novel, I encourage parents to follow the first subtle, then intoxicating scent of decomposing flesh, pry open the upstairs bedroom door and see for yourself the exposed skeleton of Homer Barron.
I could have skated in this position for the rest of my life, and considered this job the easiest of my career. Yet, after months of investigation into the organization, the recognition that advocating for progress amounted to the proverbial “kicking against the pricks,” and a mounting discomfort with the culture of the program, I decided that the only ethical and physically healthy decision was to depart, but not without vocalizing the aspects of the program not witnessed on the surface that genuinely disturb my spirit.
I want to emphasize that I respect and sympathize with the position of many parents. Some of whom were genuinely sold into the belief of a rustic, though safe and wholesome farm experience. Or worse still, emotionally blackmailed into believing that their child will regress or die if removed from the program, despite statistics that show the opposite effect of over-institutionalism. I also want to acknowledge that some children really feel that they needed to endure even the harshest aspects of SHA to change and reform. I am sincerely glad to read their promising success stories. I don’t want to instill resentment, but I do want future and present parents to understand the nature of the program that they may better advocate for their teenagers in this structure. Why? Because I have seen for myself that for as many students as the website touts as success stories there are as many, if not more victims of this profitable organization. Parents, keep the staff on the phone, visit at unexpected times, and never be afraid to challenge those in authority. You paid 120k for medical treatment and you deserve everything on the website and more.
At the end of the day, when one peruses my goals and objectives they see extremely moderate expectations and not the vitriolic attacks of a radical. From the beginning, I have insisted on the need for a third residential staff paid a living wage, men prevented from access to private female spaces and conversations, safe living quarters, and a real medical infirmary according to DHS guidelines. To this end, I have reached out to county resources to at least (for now) keep SHA on their toes concerning cleanliness and hygiene and created a body of information available to allow for a knowledgeable student base and parent body that can advocate for a safer environment. I personally believe that parents and students deserve informed consent in their medical care and my actions have been in accordance to this deeply ingrained belief.
For those insisting that “I have gone too far” in presenting the living conditions and daily experiences of vulnerable teenagers… I respond with the assertion that it is nearly impossible to speak too emphatically concerning the care and relief of children separated from family. I reject the idea of covering, or even softening, the heat placed on a profitable business simply because it is Christian. Indeed, the principles of mercy and stewardship ought to be held to a much higher standard in these religious institutions. And while I would never compare myself in deed to D.L. Moody, I will borrow his words spoken in response to his critic, “It is clear you don’t like my way of doing evangelism. You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.” I am not the “best” suited to activism. I am aggressive, passionate to the point of emotional, and struggle with the black and white thinking of many Autistic persons before me. Yet, despite receiving dozens of quiet approving messages from former staff, photographs, and written confessions, I am the one that actually decided to move forward and do something actionable (although I genuinely understand the needs and positions of others). My investment of time and nerve, has now established new testimonials and helped resurface old statements that establish a cogent and clear timeline of events. Ultimately, one sees an individual that really bought into the mission of SHA, far more than many that enjoy a high profit stake.
Final note, for those reading, often times claims of SHA and TTI abuse are delegitimized as the writer is sometimes a “liberal Atheist.” Well, this article (if it matters) is written by a politically independent Christian, wife, and mother pursuing a traditional life-style in rural Georgia.
Warm regards,
Carly Camejo
